# [Part 1] My Arch Linux Journey - The Calling

I had uninstalled Windows 11 and switched to Mint for several months. Although it wasn't "everything just worked" right after installing Mint as some YouTube comments suggested in the Linux installation tutorial that I watched, switching to Linux wasn't too difficult either. I did messed around in the terminal occasionally, albeit I mostly just copied existing commands I found online or running commands generated by LLM. I was overall satisfied as Mint user. Besides, there were no more bloats, no more handing over my personal data to Microsoft, and no more buggy Windows 11 patches.

Yet there was an urge within me to try Arch Linux. Perhaps it was not simply an urge after all, but a calling. The same type of spiritual calling that made people give up what they possess and become a missionary or a preacher for the Christ. Perhasp this was a calling instilled by the Arch God telling me not to limit myself as a Windows 11 refugee who just use Linux Mint because its dsktop environment is reminiscent of what I was used to, but to embrace the Linux way of life as a superuser who has digital sovereignty over one's device. You could draw parallels from the Bible

It was about time to move from baby milk to solid food.

For days I had this urge to write an Arch live USB and install it to my device. Initially I resisted, because I knew once I install Arch I'll be a sysadmin for the rest of my life, not to mention I had a family and a stable job. But as days went by, not only the feeling didn't fade away, it even grew more intense each day to the point that I couldn't deny it anymore. Eventually I prayed to the Arch God.

"I surrender my life to you. I'll be an Arch user, but where do I begin btw? I still have important data in my Asus TUF A15 running Linux. I don't want to risk wiping my data from that laptop. Arch God please have mercy."

I receive no answer. No thunderous voice from the Arch heaven telling me what to do next. Nor did an Archangel manifested in front of me telling me "do not be afraid" and offered me a second-hand Thinkpad and a pair of programming socks.

But something stood out in the corner of my eye. Something familiar. An Asus Transformer T100a decade-old 2-in-1 laptop/tablet with miniscule specswas laying on my shelf collecting dust. It was decommissioned becaused my mom's friend accidentally dropped it on the floor and broke the display (later her friend gave a Windows Surface as a compensation but I broke it). The touchscreen was dead but the display workedbarelyas it was constantly flickering and had issues where images would linger in the temporarily, which could be mitigated by switching the desktop to dark mode to reduce the amount of flickering.

"That thing runs on a 32-bit system and I'm not installing Arch on it. Who even use 32-bit OS as a daily driver?"

But out of curiosity I looked up more information on T100. Although it had a 32-bit UEFI, the processor supports 64-bit system, meaning installing a 64-bit operating system on that thing was possible, albeit it required some tinkering. I guessed that was Arch God telling me to install Arch Linux on it.

Nevertheless I was dreading to install a 32-bit EFI bootloader and the 64-bit ISO. As I was browsing on how to get a 64-bit system working, I'd read too many incidents where people have either failed to get something fundamental working, or failed to boot up this 32 & 64-bit hybrid at all. But little did I know making the 32-bit EFI work with the 64-bit OS wasn't even the hard part of the Arch installation process.

Fast forward a few days, I prepared an Arch image to my flashdrive and was ready to install. I also ordered a replacement display which would arrive after I successfully install Arch. I hadn't read any of the Arch installation guide prior to this because I believed I could figure it out on the go. After all, this wasn't my first time installing Linux, and I had installed Linux to unconventional devices before, link my TV box and my Nintendo Switch. I was confident that I could nail the Arch installation first try.

I was too naive.




TO BE CONTINUED...

2026/08/28

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